Volvo Trucks North America product marketing manager Jim Fancher said the company is using eight test vehicles strictly to determine how much fuel economy is affected.
"I don't have the test results yet, but my gut tells me a fuel economy penalty between 2% and 5% is the right zone," Fancher said, adding that the expected up charge for a cooled EGR engine should end up between $2,500 and $4,500 per unit.
Fancher, speaking at the 2002 Mid America Truck Show, said Volvo's engine building subsidiary, Volvo Power, has worked hard to minimize the affect of higher heat loads generated by cooled EGR technology.
"With cooled EGR, we've seen a five degree Fahrenheit increase in under hood temperature," he said. "We've added extra blades to the engine fan to remove some of that heat and have upgraded the engine's hoses so they can not only withstand higher external heat but also handle coolant that will have elevated temperature as well."
Fancher did note that oil drain intervals should not change, even though cooled EGR engines must use new CI-4 oils designed to handle higher soot loads generated by reintroducing the exhaust back into the combustion chamber. He added that Volvo's testing shows that there will be no need to increase the volume of engine oil in order to maintain current oil drain intervals.